Jon Cryer Says He Lived in Fear for Charlie Sheen

First came the news that Charlie Sheen had split with his girlfriend, after giving her an engagement ring and wearing one himself for months.

We’ve also known that Sheen has toyed around for a while with the idea of getting back on Two and a Half Men, even just for a guest appearance. Recently he visited the idea again.

That might be a tall order, since Sheen famously called Chuck Lorre, the show’s producer, a “contaminated little maggot” and an “earthworm”. Then Lorre killed off Sheen’s character and slid Ashton Kutcher right into Sheen’s old parking space.

Still, Sheen’s hope springs eternal. He has ideas for how to go about justifying his character’s reappearance, if only Lorre will accept his apology and give the word.

But how does Jon Cryer feel about all this? Cryer recently spoke to HuffPost Live about his former costar’s very bizarre and very public tailspin.

"I think for me, and for a lot of people, the first sort of crack in the facade was when Charlie started going on the Alex Jones show and talking about 9/11 — that it was a conspiracy, and that it was a controlled demolition and all this stuff," Cryer said. "I remember driving into my parking space, and I saw him stepping out of his trailer, and I was like, 'Uh, can we talk for a minute?'"

Sheen’s substance abuse, legal problems, outrageous antics, and embarrassing escapades kept everyone guessing about what he would do next. He thought he was indestructible. Cryer did not.

"Anybody who's had an addict as a friend knows that you live with this fear — you know, is the next phone call gonna be the one where something horrible has happened?" Cryer said. "And I had that a lot with Charlie. And it was very, very tough to live with.

“When you’re dealing with somebody dealing with a substance abuse problem, it's tough to get through. And clearly I didn't at the time."

Then came the time when, after being fired and replaced, Sheen tweeted to Kutcher to “quit barfing on my old brilliant show”.

"Dude, shut the fuck up!" Kutcher responded on Jimmy Kimmel’s show. "Seriously, like. Enough already. Like it's like three years later and you're still blowing me up on Twitter. Like come on dude, really?"

Sheen responded with an apology.

“Ashton message received. So sorry. U sounded like me! Well done! My bad I was pissed at other crap & took it out on you. Hope u r good xo."

Then, two hours later, he issued a tweeted threat to Kutcher.

“But news flash Dood, you ever tell me to shut the Fuck up, EVER again and I’ll put you on a hospital food diet for a year."

The whole exchange bewildered Cryer.

"I don't know why he does that, because he does it and then the next day he apologizes," Cryer said. "I feel for Ashton because he's just showing up doing his job. He's not asking for any of this stuff. It's all unnecessary. I don't know why Charlie feels the need to do it. But he comes out of it. And then he apologizes and he does it again. So you can't think about it too much."